Exactly what were we doing? Standing on the boardwalk, that’s exactly what we were doing!
The three of us were gazing south, leaning against a gray weathered pillar watching the day’s bathers exit the beach.
Sun had just set when we decided to head for Tybee Beach, a mere block from our bed and breakfast. We stood there enjoying the solitude with a good breeze whipping the sea salted sand out of our hair, and coolin' our skin. The night was dusky gray, not yet opaque. It was peaceful.
“Watchin' the tide, roll away, sittin' on the dock of the bay, wastin' time.” Yes, absolutely, we were wastin’ time!
Soon, lights like lightning bugs, flickered here and there at the waters edge. It took a bit to figure out if it was insects, or something else. We finally realized it was treasure hunters with flashlights. They were looking for shark teeth, jewelry, money; anything of value to them – even sand crabs that scamper away or baby loggerhead sea turtles that head for the moonlight.
The bouncing lights just added to the relaxed ethereal feeling.
“Sittin’ in the mornin’ sun, watching the ships roll in, then watch ‘em roll away again.”
The next morning Spencer pulled out his sand anchor and his beach umbrella of striped blues and white. Right to the edge we went. Right where the water slides up the beach. We screwed the anchor in up to its handles, and then poked the umbrella shaft into that. Ahhhhh, I had my beach, my cool water, and my shade, too! Life couldn’t be better!
We casually watched a fisherman casting from the large black rock jetty nearby. As he made his moves, a series of little white fish jumped out of the water as if they were being juggled by an undersea creature, “Ploop. Ploop. Ploop.”
Then John noticed water bubbles about two feet from him accompanied by a decent sized under-the-surface shadow. “There’s something staying right with us,” he said pointing.
I turned to Spencer, “Didn’t you say you wanted to pet a shark?” “Well, there you go. From your lips to God’s ears!”
Swiftly, Spencer took two giant steps back! Behind us he pushed. I guess we were supposed to pet the shark!
Bobbing on Atlantic’s ocean waves, floating between the crests, we’d occasionally push off the sandy bottom with our toes.
We watched sailboats cruise by, then two big ships made their appearance out of the ocean’s haze. The first one veered off and disappeared out of sight. The second one, bigger, of a more impressive hulk, stayed on his tail, but didn’t veer off, instead disappeared into his own journey.
That’s us -- disappearing from our normal life into our own journey.
“I'm sittin' here restin' my bones, this … thousand miles I roamed, just to make this dock my home, wastin’ time.”
Being back home, back to normal life, I’m a’wastin’ time! I gotta go back. The sirens of the sea are calling me. Gotta go back to that dock in Tybee to watch some “tides roll away!”
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